Why Rocketry Doesn't Work in the Vacuum

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Well, who knew?

I hate to be crass, but there sure are a lot of ignorant people out in the web-o-sphere.

Greg

PS: This needs a double face-palm.
 
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I find it hard to believe that there are still (supposedly) educated people in the world who think the Apollo moon landings were faked. :kill:
We would be much better off. Especially if these people are reproducing.

Adrian
 
jd2cylman said:
I find it hard to believe that there are still (supposedly) educated people in the world who think the Apollo moon landings were faked. :kill:
We would be much better off. Especially if these people are reproducing.

Adrian
Click to expand...

55% of Americans know the sun is a star. Let that one sink in a little while and you will realize there are worse things than conspiracy theorists
 
Having actually read his entire argument... all I want to do right now is beat him upside the head with a Navier-Stokes-engraved cluebat. Or at least give him a little lesson in flow restrictions. He exhibits the classic fallacy that vaccum is somehow 'sucking' when it's really just the absence of pressure. I love how he qualified the statement though: "no HONEST scientist..." (emphasis mine).

Just hope this guy doesn't vote. or run for public office.
 
Wow. I just spent a few minutes looking around that forum.
Give a guy some warning next time. Tin foil hat required before entering the loony bin.
crazy2_zps589d737b.gif
 
It was a scathing newspaper article on that very thing that drove Goddard into his reclusive life if I remember correctly.

Bones
 
Bone Daddy said:
It was a scathing newspaper article on that very thing that drove Goddard into his reclusive life if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

But, the New York Times did apologize ... eventually. :)

-- Roger
 
WOW...a link like that on THIS forum...we'll see how far this one get's..

I have seen the arguments of the "non- moon landing" folks and years ago found it intriguing, but I take into account both sides of the argument. The one thing that that proved to me was an interview with one of the Apollo astronauts, his quote, "if they faked it, why would they fake it five times?"

Besides all this, there's PLENTY of video footage of thrusters working in space, according to this theory, they shouldn't work either, and how could we get the Hubble into orbit.
 
I actually met a 30's something chap who, in idle conversation, was asking what I did before retiring. I gave him the 10 second rundown and randomly referred to the ISS, no longer being supplied by Shuttles and leaving Russia with the resupply effort (at least until SpaceX kicks their Dragons into high gear.) Looking a bit quizzed, he asked what that was. "Um-the International Space Station?" The idiot light on his dash board lit up again. "Whut's that?" I swallowed my tongue and the urge to beat him senseless and explained. I am shattered the 'average' American really knows so little about our space effort beyond "oh yeah-we landed on the moon sometime in the 70's or 80's-right?" For our huge leaps in technology and communication, we have spawned a generation that insulates and isolates themselves so successfully that I can now ask 10 randomly selected 20-somethings who the Vice President is and only 2 can answer. (these are supposed to be future voters) Nobody watches the news or reads a paper (or book for that matter). Maybe one out of five can tell you the weather forecast for the next day. I'm asking each and every one of my fellow TRF'rs to go forth and multiply. Then teach those children some math, science and maybe a little history. It's the only chance we have. "We have met the enemy, and he is us"(-Walt Kelly; "Pogo" cartoon strip)
 
closet astronaut said:
Besides all this, there's PLENTY of video footage of thrusters working in space, according to this theory, they shouldn't work either, and how could we get the Hubble into orbit.
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Obviously, that's all fake too. They do it with computers. </sarcasm>
 
You folks are all missing something -- the premise is correct. A rocket does NOT work in a vacuum.

The problem is you're misunderstanding the premise. It's a conceptual rocket, in the physical vacuum that exists between the author's ears. That conceptual rocket doesn't work in that hard vacuum.

-Kevin
 
Nothing to push against? Rockets arent powered by spinning propellers.
 
I think the author is confusing the difference between a vacuum and just plain sucking.

&#8220;Some people are like a Slinky. They&#8217;re not really good for much; but they do bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs&#8221;.
 
All them weather and communication satellites are just big government conspiracies to justify them unjust taxes :y:

Of course, those satellite thingies can't really "orbit" over the flat Earth anyway

Well, not really. :facepalm:

These are the types that give conspiracy groups a bad name...
 
No warp drive.... No jumps to Hyperspace... No Faster Than Light Drive.... No Ludicrous speed.... No Going Plaid? That's okay I can still dream of SPACE, and Galaxies Far Far Away. I can dream of piloting any one of my rockets To Infinity and Beyond.
 
This just further illustrates the lack of understanding the vast majority of people have of even the simple, inviolate laws of physics.

I would hazard a guess that most people believe that rockets liftoff because the burning fuel pushes off against the ground. This is despite the fact the rocket obviously quickly reaches a height that this could not be possible. I heard a high school physics teacher use this as an example of Newton's 3rd Law - yes I kid you not.

2nd would be it pushes against the air.

The idea that the reaction force is against the combustion chamber so no external anything is needed for the rocket to push off on is probably an explanation you will never hear. Why? It is not actually observed. It's the Wizard behind the curtain. It's the role of science educators to pull back that curtain and present it at a level the unwashed masses can understand.

This was the amazing talent of Carl Sagan.

Ironically, his drive to educate the common folk never did wear well with his peers and he never received the accolades, awards or honors from the scientific community that he deserves. But, that's another story all together.

Bones
 
As a professional, practicing scientist I would like to respond.

Ahem....AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you.
 
rbelknap said:
Obviously, that's all fake too. They do it with computers. </sarcasm>
Click to expand...

Dang...what was I thinking. I mean all the weather satellites are actually hologram generators that will be used to project holographic images on the amonium sulfides and aluminum that has been dispersed into our atmosphere which were originally know as chem-trails, images to scare the population into total submission to the powers that be. OOOO Hocus-Pocus!
 
Cl(VII) said:
As a professional, practicing scientist I would like to respond.

Ahem....AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you.
Click to expand...

What he said. I'm pretty terrified that R&D funding is controlled by people like that (who get elected to Congress). And since this is an internet forum, an obligatory XKCD is in order: https://xkcd.com/154/
 
Here is how they faked the moon landings!

[video=youtube;P6MOnehCOUw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MOnehCOUw[/video]
 
:: sigh ::

I hate people who preface an incorrect hypothesis with "I'm by no means an expert on ___, but all these experts are wrong."
 
I looked at the forum there. Please please make it go away! Troj is right about the vacuum between the ears thing. What a sad sad world. I guess I'll just go back and put on my aluminum foil hat to keep aliens from reading my mind...
-Ken
 

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